Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson last night threatened to blow the SPL’s proposed new 10-team format out of the water.

Although league chairman Ralph Topping emerged from what he described as a ‘positive’ meeting of all 12 clubs at Hampden yesterday, Thompson - who did not attend because of a prior commitment - insisted that he won’t vote in favour after they meet again on January 17.

With an 11-1 majority required to change the number of clubs in Scottish football’s top flight, the defiant Tannadice owner needs to find just one sympathiser to leave SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster’s plans for a 10-team SPL and SPL 2 in ruins.

Standing firm: Stephen Thompson has vowed to vote against the proposals for a 10-team SPL

Sportsmail understands that Hearts, Kilmarnock and Inverness also have serious reservations about backing a return to a 10-strong league.

Clubs have been told emphatically that a league of 16 is not viable, with Topping warning that the current proposal is a ‘take-it-or-leave-it package’, but Thompson was standing firm last night.

‘Dundee United will certainly be voting against it if it is the same proposals as before and I would imagine we won’t be the only ones,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t at the meeting at Hampden, so it is difficult to gauge the mood and how argumentative it was.

'But the bottom line for me is that I don’t think a 10-team league is good for Scottish football. It will stifle youth development and put almost all eight non-Old Firm clubs in danger of relegation.

‘I don’t think it will do much for the entertainment value because it will bring a fear factor into most games. Some teams could end up playing to avoid relegation from the very first day of the season — and that will encourage negative football.’

A second SPL boardroom figure, who declined to be named, gave Thompson hope of backing and told Sportsmail: ‘Anyone who says we are nearing consensus is deluding themselves. There are more than a few issues still to be resolved with the package of proposals as it stands.’

Thompson added: ‘A 10-team SPL is not what the fans want to see. Without the fans, you don’t have a game, it’s as simple as that. Now, I accept that we, as the SPL, have to make decisions as owners or chief executives based on business, but you can’t disregard your customer base completely.

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‘In the polls they have done, the supporters have been dead against it (a top-10). If a supermarket chain or any other big business is doing a re-branding or expansion, the first thing they do is speak to their customers and find out what they want. If you don’t listen to what they want, they’ll simply go away and do something else.

‘The television companies want four Old Firm games a season. They pay the money, so they have a big say — nobody is disputing that. But we can’t just make decisions based on that alone when it’s definitely not what the supporters want to see.’

Thompson’s ominous blast flew in the face of initial reaction at Hampden earlier yesterday after Topping insisted that retaining the status quo of 12 clubs (with the imbalanced 33-match fixture split) was unthinkable — and that a 16-team league is financially unworkable.

Play-offs at the top of the table — put forward by Hearts and Dundee United over Christmas — have already been emphatically dismissed as a ‘non-starter’, but now all 12 clubs will gather again later this month as the SPL seek ‘consensus’ on a two-tier 10-10 system, a winter break, promotion play-offs and an earlier start to the season.

That plan is now far from being accepted, despite Topping warning yesterday: ‘There is a Plan A at the moment and there is no Plan B.’

But he said at the close of talks: ‘I felt there was more positivity around the table than negativity and the plan is basically the proposals brought forward by the Steering Group. Those will be the recommendations we will put on the table.

‘That’s a 10-team league with a winter break, an earlier start and promotion and relegation play-offs. As things stand, that would be the teams finishing eighth and ninth in the SPL going into the play-offs. But the Steering Group will have another meeting on that before January 17 and there may be some modifications.

‘We have to look at the broad principles rather than every individual element. And we should remember that we’ve been working on this for eight months. We put together a Steering Group and met with groups of clubs. We’ve had feedback from them and advised them.’

Six so-called ‘rebel’ clubs met with the SPL on Christmas Eve — Dundee United, Hearts, Inverness, St Johnstone, Hamilton and Kilmarnock — when there was talk of teams who finish third or fourth being involved in Hampden play-offs for the SPL title.

Topping ruled out that plan, saying: ‘I think it would be fair to say that talks about play-offs at the top of the league ensured that such a proposal would be a non-starter.

‘The 10-10 reconstruction was, of course, under discussion and there are a lot of positives in that, in my opinion. ‘From an economic point of view, 16 or 18 teams just does not work. It would lose too much money for the clubs.

‘We will look at where we go from here as a Steering Group. On January 17, we would be looking to try to get a broad consensus. We need an 11-1 vote and we have to bear that in mind.’

Thompson, meantime, has already made it clear that he intends to be the one. Whether he is the only one is the big question as Scottish football’s latest revolution remains very much in the balance.